Many questions (risky medicine/sphincteroplasty/pain pump)

[Guest guest]

Hi Louise ()

I don't know what you prefer being called Louise or , so I have put down

both. Now for your question. I did have a sphinteroplasty in April of 92. I

was only in the hospital for 8 days for the surgery. It was done at Cleveland

Clinic.

It did help me for only about 6 months, until scar tissue developed over it and

cause it to be block. I have hear from other people who have had them and it

has cleared up their problems completely without any more problems. I guess I

just one of the lucky people who are very prone to scar tissue and adhesions.

(Ha Ha!!!) As for the pain pump, I have had much better results. I am now on

my second one. My first one lasted 4 1/2 years and I have had this new one

since this past September and it's working good. I have morphine in it and I

still have to take percocet for my break though pain. But over all it usually

keeps my pain at a bearable level. When they put the pain pump in it's surgery

they put it in your lower abdomen under your skin and run a catherater into your

spinal cord to the nerve that affect your pancreas. The reservoir that hold

your

medicine is a 18ml. container, about the size of a hockey puck. They have to

refill it anywhere from every 1-3 months, depending on what dose you are on. I

up to a higher dose so I have to have my filled once a month. They refill up

with a long needle that goes into a rubber tip on the reservoir. They must

removed

any old medicine in it before the put the new medicine in it. It was developed

for back pain in the beginning and now I believe they are using it more for

pancreatitis patients. When I first had mine put in 98, they were fairly new

using for Chronic Pancreatitis patients and there wasn't much information about

how effective the results were. Mine has worked so well that when my battery

was going bad, I was sure going to have another one. They are very expensive.

I believe my new pump was somewhere around $19,500.00, just for the pain pump.

They did my replacement one as an outpatient procedure and my total bill

including

the doctors fee was over $26,000.00. Thank heavens for good insurance, as I

could never afford this on my own. When you do get it refilled, they have to

reprogram it each time so it will know how much medicine you need. They do

this using a computer mouse. They put it over the reservoir and they computer

tell the computer chip inside how much you need. It is very amazing how far

technology has come. I had to go to Ohio State University Hospital, in

Columbus,

OH, to have mine put in and now I only have to go back once a year for a check

up, which is great since it 2 1/2 hours each way. I can have my filled locally

by my Home Infusion Nurse at Wheeling Hospital, which is only 5 minutes away.

I hope this has help answer some of your questions.

[Guest guest]

Hi,

You didn't sign your name, so I don't know who you are, but I did

want to thank you for all the info. I did send an email to Dr.

Sutherland at the University of Minnesota and he sent a nice reply, I

will tell more about it in my post shortly.

Thanks again,

Louise ()

P.S. I do prefer , as it is my nick name, but Louise (my given

name) is fine too.